Page 53 of The Lessons

We carried on for another forty-five minutes. By the end of the meeting, we’d mapped out our next nine months of strategy, focused around—you guessed it—‘The Forbidden.’

Cathy grabbed me as everyone was shuffling out of the conference room. “Natalie, hang on a sec.” She waited for the room to clear. Once the last of the staff had filed out, she continued. “Great job today. I really liked what I was hearing. I knew I put the right person on the customer development project. Keep it up, and you are going to have a lot of doors open for you.”

I closed my eyes for a split second, savoring the unexpected compliment. “Thanks, Cathy. That means a lot. I’m excited to get to work.”

I really was unbelievably fortunate. Cathy had taken a chance on me, despite the huge employment gap on my resume. I knew I had to do well and not squander this one opportunity I had.

I headed back to my office. Paulina was there waiting for me, twirling around in my desk chair.

“Enjoying yourself?” I joked as I walked in.

Paulina looked at me, her eyes wide, and then stood up, vacating the chair. “Are you kidding?” she exclaimed. “Is that all you can say? You killed it in the meeting today!” Then she lowered her voice conspiratorially. “What did Cathy say?”

“Oh, uh, just to keep up the good work…” I walked over to my seat and collapsed into it.

“Seriously, though, good job. The Forbidden… Very clever, Nat. Don’t knowwherethat idea came from…”

I stared at her, frozen. For a second my thoughts went to Ryan. Then I realized no, of course not. She meant Brad. Shealwaysmeant Brad. I sat back and sighed.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t you have some magazine writer to pester?” I smiled, not giving in to her attempt to get me to talk about Brad. I silently wondered if she knew about our coffee date that evening.

“Hey, workaholic, put down the keyboard.”

I looked up from my computer. Brad was leaning casually against the doorway of my office. I squinted at him for a second, mentally comparing him to Ryan.

Yep. I was still thinking about Ryan. Brad was nice, but he didn’t have the same…presence Ryan did. But I wasn’t going to worry about that. Tonight had one purpose: to get me back in the dating pool so that I wouldn’t feel so out of touch. You know, a totally normal reason to go on a date. Just another day as Natalie Reese, A.V. (That stands for Antiquated Virgin, by the way.)

“Oh, hey, Brad. Hang on. Let me just send this email—”

“You know I could shut down your computer remotely, right?”

I pressed send and sat back. “Sorry.” I offered an apologetic smile.

“Are we still on?”

“Yes! I mean, yes, definitely. What time is it?” I massaged my neck with one hand.

“Six.”

“Shit. Sorry. I’ve been caught up in this campaign brief. You should’ve come and got me.”

He smiled, and the area around his eyes crinkled. “It’s okay. I figured it was probably better to let everyone go home before we headed out. You know, to avoid being news around the water cooler tomorrow morning.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

I chuckled. “Good thinking. Just let me finish this email and grab my bag. Can I meet you in the lobby in five?”

“Sure. See you down there…and Natalie? Don’t think about standing me up. I know where you work.”

I used the five minutes to frantically prep myself for my date. I don’t know how I’d managed to lose myself in work because, truth was, I was insanely nervous. It had been years since I’d done this.

Once I’d applied an extra coat of mascara and a new swipe of lipstick, I was on my way. When I got to the lobby, Brad was standing there, looking right at me while on his phone. He grinned as I walked up to him.

“I gotta go. Talk to you later,” he said before pressing off his phone. He then held out his hand.

I hesitated for a second. “Who you talking to? You better not say your girlfriend.”

He looked over at me and chuckled. “Natalie Reese, I hadn’t figured you for the jealous type.”

“Oh, we haven’t even been on a date, and you think you know me?” I quipped as we headed toward the lobby doors.

---